'The Buddy Holly Story': Nothing like a great Buddy

"Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" has been remounted in a fall production downtown at Drury Lane Water Tower Place. This is the review from the original production in Oakbrook.

"Buddy Holly dies in the end?" said one of the droll bartenders at the Drury Lane Theatre Saturday night to a loquacious, intermission patron. "You ruined it for me."

There are indeed no surprises with "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," the immensely popular but plectrum-thin London jukebox musical that makes "Jersey Boys" look like "War and Peace." But I'll say this: The people at the Drury Lane found a Buddy for their "Buddy." And when you have this level of Buddy, coupled with several other good buddies, you can offer fans of the Holly oeuvre a very good time.

"Buddy" goes the standard bio-musical trick of the long Act 2 concert sequence one better. It actually includes two Holly concert sets—one at the Apollo Theatre to conclude Act 1 and one in Clear Lake, Iowa, which was, of course, the performing conclusion of Holly's life. I had my pen poised to poke some fun at the absurdity of having the Drury Lane audience stand in for the crowd at the Apollo—as the show requires—but then the audience got so terrifically worked up, it seemed churlish.

The handsome young actor firing up the western 'burbs is Justin Berkobien, who has a new union card and a bucket-load of talent. I've heard closer facsimiles of the Holly sound, and Berkobien misses some of the essential gawkiness that made Holly so personally distinct. But in terms of charismatic and vocally adroit star turns, this is one to remember.

Berkobien—you'll be reading more of that name—wraps himself around the lead microphone with oodles of that most essential quality for theatrical stardom: effortless desire. And he sounds great to boot. During his best moment, the gorgeous ballad "True Love Ways," young Berkobien's radiating appeal drew the entirely drunk woman in the next seat so close to her equally intoxicated beau, it felt like I was sitting next to a single beast with two ecstatic heads.

Despite terrific production values, Tammy Mader's staging doesn't solve the often-clunky storytelling in the piece. But the concert sequences are bravura, and this big, highly experienced cast makes sections of the show work—parts I'd never seen work before. And by the end of the night, after Casey Campbell's Big Bopper and Tony Sancho's Ritchie Valens have thrown their hot coals onto Berkobien's fire, even the chandeliers start to swing.